I have bit of a unique dataset and I'm having difficulty symbolizing it in an intelligible way. I have many overlapping multi-part polygons. Larger ones obscure smaller ones. When I use the field map controls I can successfully "stack" the little ones on top, thereby making them visible. But this requires that I use the shape area field when field mapping. However I wish to use colors to display a different attribute than shape area. Any thoughts?

Mapping Center Answer:

Try Symbol Level Drawing. Right click the layer in the Table of Contents, on the Symbology tab, use Unique Values, Many Fields. For the first Value Field, Use the attribute you want to show with color. For the second Value Field, use the area. Then click the Advanced button at the bottom right, and click Symbol Levels. You will see that all the features are listed for each category of color and each size of feature. Shifting the features up or down in the list shifts their drawing order. The features at the bottom of the list are drawn first and the ones at the top are drawn last. Now you ahve complete control over which features are drrawn over other features.